Martin O’Malley, chief of the Social Security Administration, told lawmakers Sept. 11 that his agency needs increased funding to improve its customer service operations.
“Social Security today is struggling to serve more customers than ever with staffing that Congress has reduced to a 50-year low,” O’Malley said before the Senate Budget Committee.
“This is what happens when an agency is forced to serve more and more and more people with fewer and fewer and fewer staff. And the American people deserve better,” the agency commissioner added.
As more of the population begins to reach retirement age, the number of new Social Security applicants and beneficiaries will continue to rise in the coming years, the agency’s chief actuary found, according to O’Malley’s written testimony.
This development is coupled with Social Security's other problem: the program's combined trust fund reserves are projected to face depletion in 2035, at which point continuing income to the funds would only be able to pay 83% of scheduled benefits, according to the Social Security Board of Trustees’ annual report.
Both Democrats and Republicans at the hearing agreed that Social Security benefits need to be protected, something that both presidential candidates have said as well.
Committee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., highlighted his own bill to address the program’s pending insolvency — known as the Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act — which would extend Social Security’s payroll tax to include all wages, self-employment income and investment income above $400,000. As of 2024, Social Security's maximum taxable earnings are $168,600, so individuals do not get taxed on earnings above that amount.
In March, President Joe Biden released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2025, which similarly calls for working to raise the income tax cap. The proposed budget also calls for increasing the Social Security Administration's funding by 9% from the 2023 level — something O'Malley supports.
“The president's budget for Social Security would be a big step in the right direction,” O’Malley said at the hearing. “It would allow us to improve customer service (and) reduce those unacceptably long wait times of backlogs across a range of services.”
In recent months, O’Malley said the Social Security Administration has made progress in addressing some of its customer service issues, including reducing wait times for its 800 number by 50% and clearing more cases in initial disability determinations every week for 12 weeks in a row.
“But make no mistake about it, these recent gains will be short-lived without your immediate attention and support,” O’Malley told lawmakers.